TV Terrors: 7 Seriously Scary TV Villains

We've seen a number of truly disturbing demons throughout Buffy's seven-season run, including the heart-jarring Gentlemen and the skin peel-n-eating, creepy-rhyming Gnarl, but Nathan Fillion's Caleb crossed over into nightmare territory. For a show filled with monsters, it was a human villain with ties to The First that topped them all in the scare department. The defrocked priest gets scare points for the ruthless way he carried out tasks on behalf of the incorporeal First Evil, and for his strength, which made him a strong opponent against Buffy. But where he really earned his nightmare status was in his creepy-preacher approach and the joy he took in his brutality and misogyny. Caleb was a man who took pleasure in the violent way he served the First, casting judgment as though every act was a creepy, violent sermon.

Even after Fillion further established himself in geek culture with roles like Malcolm Reynolds and Captain Hammer, Caleb's evilness still resonates in re-watches of Buffy's seventh season. Gone is the occasionally cocky swagger and amusing charm we've come to know and love from the actor in some of his other roles, and in its place is a bible-spouting, judgmental angry character who seems to be looking for any excuse to beat up women, making Caleb a nightmarish monster of a man who just so happens to resemble the guy from Firefly and Dr. Horrible. Plus, he poked Xander's eye out, which was probably one of the most horrifying moments of the series. So there's that.